Bhubaneswar, May 3: The BJD today opposed the proposal of the Centre to disinvest shares of National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), a public sector Navratna company.

“The party is against the idea of disinvestment of Nalco,” chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters here today.

BJD strategist and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra said the state government and his party would resist the move of disinvesting shares of Nalco, a profit-making company. “The UPA government is running on deficit funds and plans to sell its shares in Nalco to meet the deficit. It’s just like selling jewellery to manage deficit home finance,” he said.

The disinvestment ministry had recently given a proposal to the mines ministry to consider 10 per cent disinvestment of 87.15 per cent government stake in Nalco.

The mines ministry had in turn referred the proposal to the Nalco board.

The proposed disinvestment may raise around Rs 2,000 crore.